AGXStarseed
Well-Known Member
(Not written by me. Article is too long to post in full, so please check out the source link if you wish to read it all)
When Joseph Leogrande, 18, rides the subway, his caretaker reminds him to be aware of his body and space, not to stand too close to people. Sometimes it’s hard for Leogrande to concentrate on these directives—his mind is elsewhere. He likes to move to the front of the train and peer into the cab, where the driver sits. “I want to see how everything works,” he said.
Since Leogrande was a kid, he’s collected extension cords and traffic signals from the MTA. He likes to take old things and make them work again, like a broken old-fashioned touch-tone phone he recently fixed.
“It had no phone cord,” said the curious young man, who is on the autism spectrum. “I had to wire one, and I had to program it. It took a little time to figure out the contacts, but in the end I figured out the proper screws and I got it working.”
Leogrande said he isn’t sure what he’ll do professionally, but he wants to work with technology: computer programming or maybe electrical wiring. He knows he’s capable, but those around him worry it might be hard for him to find a good job. Their fear is not unfounded. Advocates for those with autism estimate that up to nine out of 10 adults with autism are unemployed or underemployed.
But a growing group of educators see technology work as an ideal field for some adults with autism and hope that tech can provide a career path and a means to financial security. At the same time, employers are beginning to see advantages to hiring people with autism, many of whom have strengths that lend themselves to working well with technology, such as being able to stay focused for long periods of time and to perform repetitive tasks with accuracy. Some critics, however, say this push could pigeonhole people with autism, focusing them too much on one interest while ignoring other potential career fields.
“It’s not a pretty picture at the moment,” said David Kearon, director of adult services at Autism Speaks. “People with autism are quite capable of lots of different types of work, but they’re not given the opportunities.”
Over the last 40 years, the decline in manufacturing jobs and increase in service jobs, which usually require social interactions, has made employment more challenging for a population that tends to struggle with social etiquette and has had few options outside of low-wage labor jobs.
But things are starting to change. This year Microsoft launched a pilot program to hire adults with autism. SAP Software & Solutions announced that by 2020 it plans to hire 650 autistic employees, one percent of its workforce—nearly the same proportion of people with autism in the general US population. And others are following suit, seeing this community as an untapped, and potentially industrious, labor force.
To prepare students with autism for these and other tech jobs, education programs nationwide are stepping in to introduce technology training at an early age. In California, STEM3 (cubed) Academy, which teaches science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills for high school students with special needs related to autism spectrum disorder, announced last month that it’s expanding to serve middle school students.
In New York, Leogrande developed the skills he needed to fix that old-fashioned phone at a tech education nonprofit called Tech Kids Unlimited (TKU). Beth Rosenberg, a mother and educator, founded the organization after she realized there was nowhere that would teach her son Jack, who has special needs, how to turn his passion for technology into marketable skills.
For the last few years, TKU has offered in-school and after-school workshops as well as weekend and summer programs in which students learn everything tech, from computer programming and animation to 3D printing and website development. Each TKU classroom has a three-to-one ratio of students to teachers and social workers. And the students have many opportunities to practice so-called “soft skills,” like ordering lunch or negotiating whose turn it is to play Nintendo Wii.
SOURCE (Full Article): http://qz.com/549127/should-we-be-pushing-people-with-autism-to-work-in-tech/
When Joseph Leogrande, 18, rides the subway, his caretaker reminds him to be aware of his body and space, not to stand too close to people. Sometimes it’s hard for Leogrande to concentrate on these directives—his mind is elsewhere. He likes to move to the front of the train and peer into the cab, where the driver sits. “I want to see how everything works,” he said.
Since Leogrande was a kid, he’s collected extension cords and traffic signals from the MTA. He likes to take old things and make them work again, like a broken old-fashioned touch-tone phone he recently fixed.
“It had no phone cord,” said the curious young man, who is on the autism spectrum. “I had to wire one, and I had to program it. It took a little time to figure out the contacts, but in the end I figured out the proper screws and I got it working.”
Leogrande said he isn’t sure what he’ll do professionally, but he wants to work with technology: computer programming or maybe electrical wiring. He knows he’s capable, but those around him worry it might be hard for him to find a good job. Their fear is not unfounded. Advocates for those with autism estimate that up to nine out of 10 adults with autism are unemployed or underemployed.
But a growing group of educators see technology work as an ideal field for some adults with autism and hope that tech can provide a career path and a means to financial security. At the same time, employers are beginning to see advantages to hiring people with autism, many of whom have strengths that lend themselves to working well with technology, such as being able to stay focused for long periods of time and to perform repetitive tasks with accuracy. Some critics, however, say this push could pigeonhole people with autism, focusing them too much on one interest while ignoring other potential career fields.
“It’s not a pretty picture at the moment,” said David Kearon, director of adult services at Autism Speaks. “People with autism are quite capable of lots of different types of work, but they’re not given the opportunities.”
Over the last 40 years, the decline in manufacturing jobs and increase in service jobs, which usually require social interactions, has made employment more challenging for a population that tends to struggle with social etiquette and has had few options outside of low-wage labor jobs.
But things are starting to change. This year Microsoft launched a pilot program to hire adults with autism. SAP Software & Solutions announced that by 2020 it plans to hire 650 autistic employees, one percent of its workforce—nearly the same proportion of people with autism in the general US population. And others are following suit, seeing this community as an untapped, and potentially industrious, labor force.
To prepare students with autism for these and other tech jobs, education programs nationwide are stepping in to introduce technology training at an early age. In California, STEM3 (cubed) Academy, which teaches science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills for high school students with special needs related to autism spectrum disorder, announced last month that it’s expanding to serve middle school students.
In New York, Leogrande developed the skills he needed to fix that old-fashioned phone at a tech education nonprofit called Tech Kids Unlimited (TKU). Beth Rosenberg, a mother and educator, founded the organization after she realized there was nowhere that would teach her son Jack, who has special needs, how to turn his passion for technology into marketable skills.
For the last few years, TKU has offered in-school and after-school workshops as well as weekend and summer programs in which students learn everything tech, from computer programming and animation to 3D printing and website development. Each TKU classroom has a three-to-one ratio of students to teachers and social workers. And the students have many opportunities to practice so-called “soft skills,” like ordering lunch or negotiating whose turn it is to play Nintendo Wii.
SOURCE (Full Article): http://qz.com/549127/should-we-be-pushing-people-with-autism-to-work-in-tech/
